


Sunset

by bravelikealady



Category: Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar Galactica (2003), Battlestar Galactica (2003) RPF
Genre: Babies, F/M, Future Fic, Post Episode: s04e19-e20 Daybreak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 21:06:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6873232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravelikealady/pseuds/bravelikealady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gaius Baltar knows about farming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunset

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NicoleAnell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicoleAnell/gifts).



__

A shaft of light through leaves blinds him in the haze of the late afternoon. The sun will set soon.

 

The grit of the dirt under his fingernails is overwhelming. He spent so long not getting his hands dirty, as if labor and grime were things you graduated from, that all the little things are agonizing.  _ There is catharsis in this _ , the digging, planting, sun-sweat and muscle aches, he thinks, but thinking that doesn’t keep moisture from forming in his eyes. Gaius Baltar swallows it down, he presses on.  _ This is a borrowed planet _ . He wonders how long he can do this. Some days it feels right, a farmer finally, like all his family before him, but some days the shadow of his father blights the light from his new life.

 

In the distance he hears a woodpecker wild in the wood that lives perhaps 30 feet from the encampment he and Capica share with the Tighs. Here they are redheaded and much larger than the ones he used to see on Aerilon as a boy.

 

(There are better soil deposits north of here, but he chose this spot for its proximity to the trees; the difference in nutrients was not enough for him to tell Caprica she could not live in the real, tangible setting of most of her projections and dreams; He may never understand how Cylons can dream so vividly of places they were never born to, but he understands the way it feels to see her face light up when she smells that honeysweet pine.)

 

When he has planted all but the seeds the Agathons left to the encampment as a parting gift before they made their way north to investigate the tribes native to the continent, he brushes as much dirt as he can from his pants and heads inward. The only sound but for the woodpecker is his own laboured breaths, his body still adjusting to hours of physical exertion. He picks at his nails the entire way back in. He thinks desperately of his bed, of rest, of sleeping until this mood passed (it always did, but then again it always returned). 

 

He wants to go home, but he isn’t sure what that means. Today is one of the days where he feels small, ten again, a boy underfoot, never working hard enough.

 

Under the canopy he does not see evidence of anyone else. The Tighs tend to wander, doing gods know what, so their absence is unsurprising. It is Caprica’s that worries him. 

 

_ I’ve told you, I’ve told you over and over _ . He drops his pack just inside the third of the encampment dedicated to their things, their privacy, and walks through to the other side.

 

“Caprica!” 

 

Gaius tries to disguise the concern in his voice, having been told repeatedly that she’s capable of being on her own, that even on this new planet she is guided and watched over by God. He tries to calm himself, to think of her hand on his brow, and how she told him to count to ten when it got this way. There were no therapists here, no alcohol, no drugs, prescribed or otherwise.

 

_ One- Two- Three- Four- _

 

They are far from any native settlements. There are no enemies here.

 

_ Five- Six- Seven-  _

 

Predators keep closer to the larger bodies of water miles away. There is no shortage of prey. There is no reason for any of them to have come this way, to have attacked a person.

 

_ Eight- _

 

But they don’t know everything about this Earth, they can’t. If anyone had answers it was Kara Thrace… 

 

_ Nine- _

 

And Kara Thrace is gone… he is 100 yards from the encampment and there is still no sign of Caprica.

 

“I’m over here. I found something.”

 

He turns to his left, where the warm voice called from, and sees her standing on the edge of a Grove, her hair wavy and wet. It is longer now than he has ever seen it, longer than the only Model Six he had ever seen wear it well below the collarbone wore it.  _ It suits her _ , he thinks.  _ The grove suits her, the sunlight suits her _ . There is nothing on this Earth that hasn’t suited her. A ghost of a person he used to be feels a tinge of jealousy, but it is far away, an echo. He walks to her, relief alleviating his tired muscles and grumbling stomach. The shadow of his father and the weight of the escape artist he was in the sky disappears with Caprica, the one thing that keeps him on the ground.

 

Caprica smiles her biggest smile and it radiates through her entirety, her eyes lighting up, her skin pink and glowing. He notices that the patchwork dress she wears is wet. It clings to her full breasts and her round stomach. She takes his hand and presses it to the newly rounded bottom of her middle. 

 

“I think I’ve found her favorite place,” she whispers, her smile getting even bigger, as Gaius feels a pulse and flutter against his hand. 

 

“Her?”

 

“For certain.”

 

“Why are you drenched,” he asks, laughing. “So strong. She’s so strong…”

 

They link their fingers together, Caprica giving him a squeeze as he caresses her smooth hand with his newly calloused thumb. He lets her lead, gladly, and lets the cool moisture in the air fill his nose, his mouth, his lungs. He smells earth and leaf and her. Everything that happened between meeting her those years ago and now feels like a terrible nightmare, some fever dream, as does the man he used to be. Surely Gaius has been here forever, walking this patch of trees, holding her hand, building a life for her, for their child growing inside of her. 

 

_ A daughter _ . 

 

The tears fall freely. He doesn’t bother to hide it. He is scared, but he is happy. But the thing he feels the most might be gratitude.

 

“Gaius, you were out when I woke… The dream… we’re having two, Gaius. Two little girls.”

 

“Twins?”

 

“Yes. They’ll have your eyes.”

 

“Are you certain?”

 

“I feel it, Gaius. In my heart. That dream was right. Two little girls with your eyes.”

 

“Does Ellen know?”

 

Caprica laughs, “I’m sure. She always knows a day or two before me. I’m glad she didn’t spoil it this time. I guess… this is some remnant of the Stream… the way we dream things…”

 

“I don’t know, Caprica. I think… I think you’re just extraordinary.”

 

She stops and so does he. She kisses his lips, soft and slow. When she pulls away he sees that they’ve come to a clearing, a small brook opening into a large pond with a little waterfall trickling down over dark rocks. It is cooler here, though the haze of the setting sun still trickles in through the canopy. Caprica begins to slide off her dress. He removes his boots and strips down as she carefully steps down into the water. The water rises above her waist when she calls to him as he himself dips a toe in, “She is kicking so hard again. She loves it here.”

 

“Only one is kicking? Is the other alright?”

 

The shadow threatens to return, his heart pounding for a moment, threatening to give out from worry over losing the second daughter who only moments ago learned he had.

 

“Mhmm,” she nods, wading in deeper, using her arms to keep herself afloat. “She’s quiet. Pensive. She likes it too, she just likes it different. She’s like you.”

 

He dunks his head under water and comes back up, reveling in the coolness of the water, slicking his hair back and out of his face, “We’re not exciting enough for you?” 

 

Caprica swims closer to him and wraps her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist, and he places one hand on the small of her back, the other resting against her stomach as he places small kisses down her neck and along her collarbone. 

 

She laughs, “You’re plenty exciting. I just mean that… she glows inward, the way you do. They’ll be good for each other. The way we are.”

 

Gaius follows a trickle of water that runs down Caprica’s brow. He tries to memorize her face, her skin, the feel of her arms around his neck, the feel of her legs wrapped around him, her full stomach, his children, one kicking wildly, the other calling out to him in her own way.  _ I can feel them _ . Caprica often chalked up her dreams, her intuition, her big heart… even her effect on him… chalked it up to being a Cylon, to the Stream. Gaius was a man of science but nothing could convince him, especially now, that Cylon or no, Caprica was simply a woman of magic. And her all-knowing radiance was contagious.

 

“The kicker,” he offers, his voice low, almost a whisper, careful in this place that felt so sacred, “could be called Natalie. For your…  _ your sister _ .”

 

Caprica smiles at him and he smiles back, knowing he’s done well, and happy that he means it this time, and gets it, what that loss must have been.

 

“That’s nice. Natalie… though I think I like Natalia. Another fighter. Another leader.”

 

“Have you been thinking of names?”

 

“One. Didia.”

 

He kissed her lips.  _ She remembers.  _ And he kissed her nose _. I haven’t spoken of her since before... since before it all… and she remembers… _

 

“Didia. For my mother.”

 

“Yes.”

 

She unwraps herself from around him and swims towards the little fall, then disappears behind it. She hums as he takes a moment to scrub away some of the dirt of the day before joining her through the veil of water. Running her hand through his hair, she laughs.

 

“What?”

 

“I’m just… happy.”

 

He knows what she means. He laughs too. There is something so absurd about the two of them here together, he thinks. But there couldn’t possibly have been any other life for them. He follows her as she swims further into the secret alcove hidden by the fall and turns, pressing her back against a rock wall. She kisses his chest and gently grasps his manhood until he stiffens and he sighs, pressing into her. Her legs wrap around him once more and the rock wall is cool against his hands, her forehead dewy warm against his own as he enters her. 

 

_ Home.  _

 

Her arms around his neck again, she is as entangled in him as she can possibly be, and as he drops a hand from the cold stone to wrap it around her long, delicate neck she whispers, “I love you.” 

 

Gaius kisses her and the pleasure that radiates through his body as she tightens around him is more than that of flesh. The water around them, the smell of her hair, the babies growing inside of her, even the dirt under his nails… it is all so pure. It is all his.  _ Theirs. _

  
_ Home. Finally. _


End file.
